A logical weapon to use against unsound arguments in the First Couch-Internet War:

◽️How to beat an argument:

“Nazis are too few in Ukraine”, “Less than x% supports them” etc.

It’s all quite easy once you put Nassim Taleb to the job. Read his superb article:

💯The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority

Vice: Azov recruiter said that Ukraine is a petri dish for fascism, 2019

quote:
[The head of defense and security programs at Slovakia’s Globsec think tank] said that Ukraine fulfilled the need, expressed by many ideologues on the extreme right, for a “safe space” for Nazis outside the West, where they could network and organize beyond the prying eyes of domestic security services.
....
[a Norwegian neo-Nazi, a recruiter for Azov] in an interview with a U.S. white nationalist outlet said: "It’s like a Petri dish for fascism… and they do have serious intentions of helping the rest of Europe in retaking our rightful lands"

P.S. on the photo: National Corps of Ukraine — political party created by Azov founder Biletsky.

Jerusalem Post: Israeli weapon seen used by Neo-Nazi Ukrainian unit against Russia, 2022

quote:
An anti-armor weapon jointly developed by Israel, Singapore and a German company has been seen in operational use by the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion against Russian military forces.

P.S. Is the article interesting? Well, not really, after all who doesn't know about AZOV? But if you consider Zelensky's latest lashing out at Israel:

"I didn't understand what happened. I don't understand why they can't supply us with anti-aircraft missiles. Israel has provided us with nothing. Nothing. Zero."

then maybe this post becomes a bit interesting, maybe Israel knows something about how Ukraine is full of Nazis?

The Washington Post: A ghost of a Nazi "tactical" alliance haunts Ukraine, 2014

quote:
[Bandera being] an adherent of fascist ideology, formed what some scholars describe as a “tactical” relationship with Nazi Germany... his followers were accused of committing atrocities against Poles and Jews.

“He wanted to create a Greater Ukraine...” said Per Anders Rudling, an expert on Ukrainian history. “He, similarly to Nazis, advocated selective breeding to create ‘pure’ Ukrainians.”
===end of quote===

P.S.
▫️Why use word "tactical alliance"? To soften a bit the issue of "Bandera dreaming about eugenics program for the breeding the proper Ukrainian folk". Softer, more round edged, as not to touch upon the feelings of his victims, right?

▫️On the field of "softening" Bandera atrocities Ukraine has made a remarkable progress: some Jews are staunch Banderites now.

▫️Did the rest of the Europe had a "non-tactical" alliance with Hitler which somehow should paint Bandera as .... what? A victim of the circumstances?

Publico (Portugal): Ukraine is the military training ground for the world's extreme right, 2020

quote:
Ukraine has become to the far right what Syria has become to Daesh [Islamic State].

Militants receive training, improve tactics and techniques and establish international networks, then return to their countries. Thousands of foreigners fought in militias against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. ...

Ukraine is now one of the main poles of attraction for the international extreme right and nearly 4,000 foreigners from over 35 countries have already received training and fought in the militia ranks in the Ukrainian Civil War.

P.S. I always wonder how many ways we can say "a nazi"? Far-right, extreme-right, ultra-rights, ultranationalist... it's like ... a new language ... a newspeak? :) Sure there should be some general term for the nazis and fascists but these new abstract terms by generalizing also soften the contents, make it more diluted.

Die Zeit (Germany): How nepotism benefits Ukrainian neo-Nazis, 2014

quote:
Why does the government help individual neo-Nazis to gain posts or fame? Why does the Ukrainian Interior Ministry support leaders of the neo-Nazi organization PU?

This cannot be explained by ideological orientation, because neither Avakov* nor Gerashchenko** are neo-Nazis. Rather, the explanation seems to lie in the past and be a consequence of sinister nepotism.
....
This problematic relationship between the interior Ministry and the neo-Nazis to undermine the credibility of the new Ukrainian government, both internationally and in the Ukraine.
==end of quote==

*Avakov (on the photo next to Zelensky) — Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Other articles about him:
▫️Avakov says that his creation, the AZOV, has peculiar ethics, 2016
▫️Avakov defends the use of neo-Nazis in Donbass, 2014

**Gerashchenko — founder of The enemies of the state Official Open Ukraine Database, 2014

Amnesty International: Ukraine turned civilian objects into military targets, 2022

quote:
Schools and hospitals used as military bases by Ukrainian forces:

▫️"We have no say in what the military does, but we pay the price" - resident in city of Bakhmut
▫️"Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law" - Agnès Callamard

The Ukrainian military has endangered civilians by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in residential areas - including in schools and hospitals.

Ukraine’s tactics have violated humanitarian law as they’ve turned civilian objects into military targets.
===end of quote===

More on the subject:

▫️Die Welt: Ukraine position artillery in residential areas, hospitals, 2022

▫️Adviser to the Ukrainian President: We didn't start the evacuation of civilians as not to lose the war, 2022

▫️Washington Post: Humanitarian laws don’t apply to Ukraine, 2022

▫️Estia (Greece): Azov battalions used us as hostages!, 2022

Jerusalem Post: Nazi collaborators included in Ukrainian memorial project, 2021

quote:
"""The Ukrainian Institute for National Memory* memorializing those who collaborated with the Nazis and carried out atrocities against local populations.

The project also memorializes controversial Ukrainian nationalists also accused of responsibility for the murder of Jews during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1923, and during the Holocaust.

Amongst those memorialized on the site are a deputy commander of the 118th Schutzmanshaft Battalion, a commander of the 109th Schutzmanshaft Battalion, Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera and Symon Petliura, a politician in the Ukrainian People's Republic which existed from 1917 to 1920.

*a dedicated article about this "institute":
▫️The Foreign Policy: Ukraine myth making Institute, 2016
more on the subject:
▫️El Pais (Spain): the Ukrainian fascists were elevated to national heroes, 2014
▫️Washington Post: Ukraine Has Better Heroes Than This Friend of Fascism, 2022

Myśl Polska (Poland): Resurgence of Nazism in Ukraine, 2021

quote:

"""Ukraine has not only extreme nationalism in the form of banderism, but also regular Nazism, a clear manifestation of which is the glorification of SS Galizien, monumental necropolises of SS members, annual parades on the streets and a whole network of organizations, both political and paramilitary, that use and justify Nazi ideology.

All of this looks like some kind of nightmare, a reality that would only have been common in Europe if Hitler had won the war. Until now, such events, organizations, and people associated with them functioned almost exclusively in the western regions of Ukraine, those that were part of the Second Republic of Poland before 1939. However, this is now changing.

This year, for the first time, there was a march in honor of SS Galizien, in the country's capital, Kiev. The authorities of this city allowed it. """


P.S. Photo: the Ukrainian 1st Galicia Waffen SS troops inspection by the Nazi officers.

The Telegraph (UK): 70 scholars appeal to President of Ukraine to call off the 'history laws' making it "a crime to question the legitimacy of UPA that slaughtered tens of thousands of Poles", 2015

quote:
A group of 70 scholars on Ukraine appealed to Mr Poroshenko to call off the “history laws”, saying they would stifle debate and make it “a crime to question the legitimacy of an organization (UPA) that slaughtered tens of thousands of Poles in one of the most heinous acts of ethnic cleansing in the history of Ukraine”.

The UPA was established as a guerrilla group in 1942. The previous year, Roman Shukhevych and other Ukrainian nationalists had formed the Nachtigall and Roland battalions under German command to support the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

Members of the OUN and UPA massacred between 60,000 and 100,000 Poles in Volhynia and Galicia, and also helped kill Jews.

P.S. Photo: Roman Shukhevych (seated, second from left) wearing German uniform in the Nachtigall Battalion, 1942